


Interlude

by Deb G (HowNovel)



Category: Starman (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1994-09-12
Updated: 1994-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-25 17:44:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/273038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HowNovel/pseuds/Deb%20G
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever wonder what happened to Starman after his first visit to Earth, and before he returned 14 years later to be reunited with his son?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude

INTERLUDE  
By Deborah G 09/12/94

Dedicated to those of us among the stars

Although the spacecraft had left the planet, taking the wayward map maker with it, Jenny still stood looking up long after it had disappeared from view. The noise from the descending helicopters was so loud that she did not hear Fox trying to get her attention. In disgust he finally climbed down to her. In a state of shock she had picked up a pile of discarded clothing that the being could not dissolve because he had not created them. Fox seized them, saying, "we need them so we can run some tests on them."

As they climbed up from the bottom of the meteor crater, Fox asked the same question over and over again. "Why did you help it escape? It was an alien from another world." All Jenny did was smile while he ranted and raved.

A few hours later at building 11, the F.S.A. agent dictated looking into a video camera. "Witness interrogation. Jennifer Hayden 617 investigation. March 12, 1972. Time 13:27," he observed, after glancing down at his watch. Then he pushed the microphone toward the woman setting next to him. She began talking into it with a frightened look on her face. "I was at home in Wisconsin. I have a cabin there. My husband and I bought it two years ago, and last spring ha was killed. A man confronted me at gun point, and commandeered my car, and ordered me to drive him to Winslow, Arizona. That's all I know. I did it because he had a gun." She was unable to look him straight in the eye.

"What about reports, multiple reports, that he fit exactly the description of your husband?" Fox asked.

"He resembled Scott. When he took the car he also took some clothes, and a baseball cap, and that created even more of a resemblance to Scott."

"I think you're lying . I don't know why you are. But I believe you're lying. You know exactly who or what it was! We tracked it to Wisconsin, we have pieces of Its ship hers being examined. Why in God's name are you protecting It? It took over your husband's body, and you let It escape. You cannot protect It. I will find It."

But the being who had assumed the form of Scott Hayden was no longer an "it" to Jenny. When she had asked his name was they were on the train, he had translated it into human sounds, it became "Twinclian."

At the very moment that Jenny was being interrogated by Fox, Twinclian was being sternly reprimanded by his captain. "Twinclian, when are you going to learn how to control your desire to learn new things?" Belisarius, his captain, demanded, radiating impulses of thought at his junior officer. "And why has your colour become a little darker since you visit to this peculiar planet?" the bronze-colored ball of light in front of him wanted to know.

After a pause, Twinclian projected his thoughts to his superior. "The inhabitants have infused me with feelings that I think caused me to change. I need to understand them better before I can explain them to you, sir."

"I think that you had better remain in your quarters until we reach home, so you can get proper help."

"Yes, sir," Twinclian agreed, as he moved toward the exit from the room.

One of the thirty-three crew members intercepted Twinclian before he reached his quarters. "What did it feel like to adapt to such a strange form?" the emerald-coloured ball of light wanted to know.

"At first it was difficult to make the body move without falling over, but that lasted only a little while." Even though they knew better than to eavesdrop, the rest of the multicoloured beings of energy "overheard" their thoughts. All during the trip back home, Twinclian tried without success to cope with the effects of his experiences with the Earth woman called Jenny Hayden.

o o O o o

George Fox, having nowhere in his attempt to break down Jenny's called his superior, General Wade. "General, if I could have some more time, I know that I can disprove Jennifer Hayden's claim to being kidnapped!.

"All right, you have two weeks. If by then she hasn't changed her story, I'll have to order you to let her go."

"But, sir..."

"No buts. However, if you are willing to reduce the number of your men, your budget could be stretched to allow for a few more months of surveillance of the subject.'

Fox, still convinced that Jennifer Hayden was the key to catching the alien, reluctantly agreed to what his boss suggested. So, after reducing his staff to only two agents, Ben Wylie and Jamie Harris, Fox allowed Jenny to return to Wisconsin. The day after she was released, Fox ordered both Harris and Wylie to follow and keep a close eye on her. "III be there in a few days. I'll bring the van up there, because we need a base of operations."

However, because the government was involved, Fox found himself staying in Washington much longer than he had expected. He sent Harris and Wylie on ahead to keep tabs on Jenny Hayden.

Following their orders literally, Harris and Wylie spied on Jenny from the forest near her home. At least once e' day Jenny would catch sight of one or the other of the agents duck behind a nearby tree when they caught her looking their way.

Finally, feeling sorry for them, Jenny brought coffee, soup, and sandwiches out to where they were. "I thought you might be hungry,' she said to the surprised agents. "Were miles from anyplace you could get a hot meal.' The two agents hesitated. "Do you remember if they said anything in training about accepting food from a surveillance subject?" Wylie asked Hams.

"I don't remember anything about that,' Harris answered after a pause.

The two agents accepted Jenny's offerings gratefully. "Are both of you full, or would you like some more?' asked Jenny when they had finished.

"No, but thank you anyway,' Harris said. Although Wylie was still a little hungry, he also declined.

A month later, during a rainstorm, Jenny went outside and managed to talk them into coming inside out of the weather. "Would either of you like some more coffee?" she called from the kitchen to the pair, unaware that Wylie had gone to open the door in response to a pounding from outside. Wylie and Harris stood open-mouthed as Fox stomped in, soaking wet.

"Yes, make it black," Fox ordered her, taking it for granted that she would obey him.

At the sound of his voice, Jenny whirled around and her hand flew to her mouth in dismay, causing the tray holding two cups on it to fall to the floor and shatter. But, taking courage from the fact that she was in her own home, she responded in a mocking tone, "Go get it yourself - this is my house, not your office!"

"Well, where is the coffee? Fox demanded, angry because his assistants had witnessed his embarrassment.

"In the kitchen. Jamie, will you show him where it is?" Jenny asked, not wanting to be alone with Fox again.

"Sure, anything for you, Jenny - ah, Mrs. Hayden," Harris said, with a guilty sideways glance at his incredulous boss.

While fox was out of the room, Wylie asked his hostess for something to put his dessert in so that he could save it for later. He didn't need to tell Jenny that it was because he didn't want his boss to catch him eating there drinking coffee was bad enough. Jenny gave him a plastic bag.

Fifteen minutes later, inside the F.S.A. van, Fox started to berate both his agents. "What in the blue blazes happened? When I couldn't reach anyone on the phone down here, I should have known something was

wrong. Wylie, put down that pie!" Fox fumed as he caught sight of Wylie trying to eat the last of his dessert, Wylie thinking he could conceal his action by hiding it behind a napkin.

"But, Mr. Fox, it's my favourite - Dutch apple pied," his assistant mumbled.

"I don't care what it is - get rid of it now!" Fox said through clenched teeth, his hands forming a circle as though they wanted to throttle someone. Catching a glimpse of Wylie's crestfallen face, he had a momentary impulse to say he was sorry, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do so.

As usual, Wylie did as he was told, but not in the way Fox expected; he gobbled down the pie.

Fox's glare slowly fumed into a rueful shake of his head, knowing any reprimand would not do any good.

The next day, Jenny saw them near her door. "Jamie, Ben, would you like to come in?"

"We'd better not, Mrs. Hayden," Harris said in a wistful tone. "What if Mr. Fox shows up again?"

"What that man doesn't know won't hurl him,' Jenny retorted.

"No, if he finds out, he won't be the one who's hurt, Mrs. Hayden. Harris responded with a troubled look in his eyes.

But within a few days the agents starred to relax again. The three of them were by now becoming friends. One night, after fixing supper, Jenny was coming out of the kitchen with her hands full when she overheard Jamie asking his partner, "Ben, have you noticed that Mrs. Hayden is putting on weight?" Jenny started trembling so badly that she dropped the dishes. Hearing the crash, her alarmed "guests" rushed around the comer to the kitchen.

"Jenny, what happened?" Jamie Harris asked in a worried tone, the first time he had called Jenny by her first name.

"I just twisted my ankle, I wasn't looking where I was stepping," Jenny lied, hopping toward a chair. Wylie picked her up and carried her over to it. Their backs fumed to Harris, neither of them saw the look of jealousy that Harris was giving Wylie. But Jenny knew that it was time for her to leave; it wouldn't be long before her weight gain was obvious to Fox as well. The next day, she went to town to telephone an old friend of Scott's, Geoffrey Fischer. "Geoffrey, as a real estate broker, could you help ma to sell the cabin as soon as possible?"

"But, Jenny, why the hurry all of a sudden?"

"Please don't ask me why. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Please let me try to help anyway," he pleaded.

"You can help me to sell the cabin. The rest I have to work out on my own,' his friend's widow told him.

"Okay, no more questions," Geoffrey said, to calm her down.

A week later, after Geoffrey had made arrangements for the sale of Jenny's home, Jenny attempted to slip out of the cabin without being heard. But Agent Harris, who was taking his turn at watching Jenny's cabin, heard her car being pushed over the gravel read. He went out and stood behind the car beside Jenny, helping her to push it down the driveway.

"Why did you help me?" Jenny wanted to know.

"Because I have fallen in love with you," Jamie Harris replied.

Jenny's hand reached up and touched his face tenderly. She didn't want to hurt him any more than she had to. "Jamie, I'm sorry, but I don't feel that way about you. Please go back in case Wylie wakes up and notices that you're gone. I don't want Fox to find out about the part that you played in my leaving."

"All right," managed to say before his voice broke. He slowly walked away. But since Jenny was already in her car, neither of them saw that the other had tears in their eyes. Hers because she couldn't care for him except as a friend, and his because he knew it.

To conceal his role in Jenny's escape, Harris pretended to be asleep when his boss arrived the next morning.

"How did she manage to get away from the two of you?" Fox said in a tone of voice that was too calm.

Ben Wylie, although he knew that it was not his fault, kept silent, as Fox's glare shifted from one to the other! Both of the friends started backing away from their boss in alarm. "Sorry, Mr. Fox, it won't happen again.'

"You're right about that, because I will not give you the chance to let it happen again!" Fox's voice began rising with anger. As Jamie Harris left the van, a relieved expression flicked across his face.

After an unsuccessful search of the area for their missing captive. Fox sent Harris back to Washington with the van, not trusting Wylie to get it there in one piece. He booked two seats on the next flight to Washington, D.C. When he felt the wheels retracting into the bottom of the plane, Fox gripped the arms of his seat so tightly that his knuckles fumed white. Wylie, noticing it, couldn't understand why his boss was so frightened.

Fox, hoping to receive more funds and more men, began to pester the people in charge of the purse strings. "Gentlemen, please, if Jennifer Hayden didn't have anything to hide, why did she disappear?' Fox asked, voicing his doubts about her innocence in the whole thing.

"All right, George, don't blow a gasket,' one of the army officers said.

"Yes, remember your blood pressure,' another one quietly reminded him.

"You will get the funds that that you asked for, but there'd better be something to show for it,' General Kimberly Jividen informed the man standing in front of her.

o o O o o

Twinclian was unaware that his "friend" had just escaped from the F.S.A., which had been persecuting her. As ho felt a change Coming over him again, to his relief he "heard" from the thoughts of those around him that this time his colour had become several shades lighter!

Belisarius, reaming that Twinclian had almost resumed to his normal colour, allowed the map maker to return to post and assume his assigned task aboard the spacecraft.

o o O o o

Jenny, after several days of almost non-stop driving and very little rest, ran out of gas in a small town in West Virginia called Blue Jay. After a day of rest, she began wandering around, and, liking what she saw, decided to stay. She applied for several jobs using the name Iris Gardner.

Jeanne Howell, the owner of an advertising firm called Rolling Hills, liked the drawings that Jenny had submitted and called her back. "Ms. Gardner, when could you come in for an interview?"

"Would tomorrow be all right?' Jenny asked.

"Fine. I have some free time at two o'clock."

After a long interview, Jeanne Howell asked when she could start.

"As soon as I find a apartment. I need a more permanent place to stay.'

After closely studying the woman sitting across from her for a while, Jeanne abruptly made a decision. "I have more than enough room for the both of us if you wanted to share expenses, Ms. Gardner.'

"Thank you for the offer, but please call me Je - Iris,' Jenny said.

"Only if you call me Jeanne. Is it a deal?"

"There I think you should know first. know three months pregnant."

Jeanne, looking at Jenny's left hand and not seeing a wedding ring, asked, "Where is the father? And does he know about the baby?"

"He couldn't stay with us," Jenny said, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She brushed them away before they ran down her face. "Yes, he knows."

"What do you want?" Jeanne asked softly." A boy or a girl?"

"It will be a boy baby. His father told me so."

"What an odd way to put it. Don't you mean a baby boy?"

"No, those were his exact words." Jenny said with a smile on her face, as she remembered their conversation that night on the train.

"Well, the offer still stands, both on the job and on the house."

"Thank you. I can start work the day after tomorrow. As for moving in, I only have a few things. Would tomorrow be too soon?"

The next day, as they were moving the last of Jenny's things to the room she had chosen, Jeanne saw the gun on top of a box that was being carried in.

"I'm sorry, but I do not allow guns in my house.

If it makes you nervous, I'll leave it in my car. But may I ask why?"

"It's a long story, and I'd rather not talk about it right now." Jeanne picked up the last box and started toward the door. All of Jenny's possessions were now moved into the huge house, which had clearly been built around the turn of the century.

A month later, as Jenny was making a fire in the old stone fireplace, Jenny looked up and noticed a photograph of a young girl on the mantel. Jeanne, who had been watching her from across the room, moved to where Jenny stood.

"Her name was Nita" Jeanne said sadly. "And she is the reason that I don't allow guns in my house anymore. My ex-husband left one within reach one day." Jeanne paused. "She would have been ten in a few weeks," she added softly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bong up painful memories, Jenny said as she hugged her new friend. Suddenly, a look of astonishment passed over Jenny's face as she felt the baby move for the first time.

Jeanne guessed what Jenny had felt occur. She knew what a special moment it was from the first time that she had experienced it herself. "Was that the first time you have felt it, Jenny?" As Jeanne put her thoughts into words.

"Yes, it felt like a feather being lightly drawn across my belly, only inside. Did it feel like that for you?" Jenny asked in a tone of wonder, with a tender look on her face that almost made her seem to glow with happiness.

Although Jeanne did not know the whole story yet, she was glad to see that even though her friend had been left to raise a child alone she was eagerly awaiting the birth of her son.

The first time that Jenny felt the baby move, halfway across the galaxy, Jenny's lover from the stars sensed a change in the thoughts of the minds around him, but this time he knew that his colour had become several shades lighter instead of darker. He felt a twinge of discomfort shoot through him for the first time.

Shortly after the spacecraft landed on its planet of origin, two globes of light propelled themselves toward Twinclian. Arishya was a pale shade of blue, and Nyota several shades darker. Twinclian's co-creators were worried about their creation. "The act of combining our energies produced you. May wee try to help you through this experience?" they asked him.

"Please, I cannot understand why it occurs more and more frequently," their offspring replied. But shortly after the three joined their various energy levels, the baby moved again, causing yet another colour change in Twinclian. This time, because they all were bonded, all three started to darken.

"I'm sorry," Twinclian projected at them, concerned for their safety. His co-creators flowed away. Twinclian was still unaware that a bond between a father and son from two different worlds was the source of his problem.

"Please,, when will you allow me to return to my task on the ship?' the map maker asked his

captain.

Only when I can be sure that your problem will not bring any danger to the rest of my crew. And, after what I heard happened to your co-creators the last time you were in rapport with them, I don't know when it will be safe to allow you to return - if ever."

"But that was because we were in actual physical contact. If I avoid touching the rest of the crew, then will you allow me to return to the ship?"

In an effort to be fair, and against his better judgement, Belisarius allowed Twinclian to return to his task of mapping the worlds they found.

But at the same time on Earth, George Fox, having gotten enough funds, hired five more agents to help him with the search for Jennifer Hayden. While following one of several leads, one of Fox's agents spotted her going home after a visit to her doctor. "Mr. Fox, I think I found her," Jack Fletcher made his report over the phone.

"What, aren't you sure?'

If it is her, I think you'd better come as fast as you can,' was all Fletcher would tell his boss over the phone.

Fox caught the next plane. After getting settled into a hotel, Fox decided that because it was so late he would start his search early in the morning.

The next morning, Fox showed Jenny's photo to several people in the area where she had been spotted. The mail carrier recognised her. "Are you sure that it's the same person?' Fox demanded.

"Yes, but her name isn't Jennifer Hayden. It is Iris Gardener.'

"I don't care what name she is using now. Can you tell me where I can find her?'

"Yes. At 716 Walnut Street."

Early the next morning, when Jeanne and Jenny were leaving for work, Fox and the rest of his men blocked their car from leaving the driveway. As the agents surrounded the car, Jeanne didn't understand why her companion had become so pale.

"Iris, Is there anything I can help you wish?' Jeanne asked, worried. Jenny just shook her head in defeat.

George Fox walked up and opened her car door. As Jenny slowly left the safety of the car, Fox's eyes widened in surprise. Fletcher had not mentioned her physical condition. The eyes of the two met and locked, not unlike those of a snake and its prey.

"I had started to wonder if we would ever find you again," George Fox said, his lips becoming a taut line. "It appears that helping it escape wasn't the only thing you did with it. How could you let it touch you, let alone couple with it?'

Jenny flinched at the word Fox chose to use, but in spite of the fear that she felt she managed to look him in the eyes briefly.

Meanwhile, Jeanne, who had left car by the driver's side, reached the woman whom she knew as Iris Gardener just in time to catch her as she fell towards the sidewalk in a dead faint! "Help me I can't hold Iris by myself," looking at the group of men who were there.

"St. Jacques, help Mrs. Hayden into the car," Fox ordered the man nearest to the two women. Jeanne started to join her friend in the car. "Where do you think you're going?- Fox demanded as he blocked the entrance So the car so that Jeanne was unable to enter it.

But the tension that their unborn child sensed from his mother began to broadcast itself to his father in outer space, causing another colour change to happen to Twinclian! Twinclian's captain, hearing of the change that his junior officer had experienced again, had him report to his quarters once again.

"I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to remain on the ship. You can either return home by a smaller craft, or pick a planet of your choice for a vacation. It is up to you."

I have some friends on the place the humans called Mars I could stay with," Twinclian said, compelled to stay near Earth without understanding why!

"All right, we will be back in this area soon. Perhaps by that time your colour will be back to normal."

As the Martian atmosphere was close to that of Twinclian's home planet, he didn't have to waste his energy cloning their form. The inhabitants of Man looked like undersized pink horses, each with a horn in the middle of the forehead.

Because both species were telepathic, the Martians had been receiving Twinclian's thoughts and knew where his ship would land. A group of four trotted over to where Twinclian's ship was, near the roddenberry bushes they loved to nibble on. Even though they had been warned of their friend's trouble beforehand, that didn't help them to conceal their reaction at just how much darker his colour was!

"Help me, Jeanne,- Jenny pleaded as she regained consciousness in the hospital where a worried Fox had taken her.

Why is the government interested in you?" Jeanne asked.

It's not me. It's my baby they want."

But why?" the woman standing by the bed asked, bewildered.

Because his father is an alien from outer space."

"Nurse," Jeanne yelled, starting toward the hallway, thinking, The poor thing, she really needs help. But she had taken only four steps before Jenny's voice stopped her!

"Jeanne, if you don't believe me, get in touch with a Mark Shermin. He's with S.E.T.I."

"S.E.T.I. What's that?"

"S.E.T.I. It stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence that's the government agency in charge of looking for extraterrestrial life forms. Mark Shermin was there when the spacecraft came to pick up my baby's father, who was stranded here when his ship got shot down. Call Mark - he'll verify my story."

"Well - okay." Jeanne swallowed to moisten her dry throat. Up to now, her friend Iris had seemed so normal. Finding out that wasn't even her real name - plus the fact that she was being held by federal agents, and she was saying that the reason her baby's father wasn't around was because he'd taken off in a spacecraft - made Jeanne's head spin, and she didn't know what to think. But perhaps this Mark Shermin was the key. What would he think when she called? "Oh, no, not that nut Jenny Hayden - if you're a friend of hers, you must be a crackpot, too"? Or was it possible that he would actually confirm Jenny's story?

When Jeanne called the number that Jenny had given her, all she got was the damn answering machine.

"I'm not home right now. If this is E.T., thank you for calling me instead of phoning home. Please leave a message after the beep.

Jeanne thought, "I'm not the crackpot he is," but she left her message anyway.

"My name is Jeanne Howell. I'm a friend of Jenny Hayden. She asked me to contact you. Please call me at this number. Area code 304-555-4155.'

Within minutes, Mark Shermin had called her back. "Ms. Howell," he said in a worried, agitated tone, "What is wrong with Jennifer Hayden?"

"Nothing, except that she is going to have a baby in three months and a George Fox has just found out about the baby," Jeanne whispered into the phone.

"What!" Shermin shouted into the phone. "Ms. Howell, please tell me where you are."

"I'm living in Blue Jay, West Virginia, and there's a diner not far from the airport called Pat's Place. I'll meet you there. How will I know you?'

"I'll be a short man with thinning brown hair, smoking a cigar. I'll be there as soon as possible.'

But while Jeanne was talking to Mark on the phone, Fox was attempting to remove Jenny from the hospital. When one of the F.S.A. agents entered Jenny's room, her eyes widened hopefully. But he let his eyes move briefly towards Fox and kept his face impassive. She, understanding, switched her gaze back to Fox when ho spoke.

"Harris, I want you and St. Jacques to take Mrs. Hayden to the F.S.A. safehouse near Tinstar, Montana," Fox ordered. "That should be far enough that no one will find her."

But as the four of them were starting to leave the hospital, Dr. David Lee Attaya was coming to check up on his patient.

"Mr. Fox, what do you think you're doing? This woman is in no condition to be moved.'

When will she be able to travel? I need to get her to a safehouse - uh, I mean to a safe place, where no one can cause her any more mental stress before it's born."

DON'T CALL MY BABY AN IT!!!" Jenny screamed at Fox, her arms wrapped around her stomach in a protective gesture.

"Mr. Fox, I think you'd better leave until she calms down.'

"Dr. Attaya, I need to talk to you out in the hall. There's something you need to understand.' Fox gestured toward the door. When the two of them had moved out into the hall, Fox closed the door to Jenny's room. "She is my friend's widow, and she hasn't fully recovered from his death. She thinks the baby's father is from outer space." George Fox made small circles near his ear with his index finger.

"Your friend's widow?' Attaya's eyebrow shot up. "The sight of you seems to cause her undue stress.'

"That is because I am the one who broke the news about Scott's death to her," Fox lied.

o o O o o

Meanwhile, on Mars, a unicorn named Zvezda stepped up to Twinclian and let her mind shield down. "Hello, Twinclian," she said.

Twinclian tried to explain his trouble better to his unicorn friends. When he told them what planet was involved, they weren't too surprised.

Another let his shield down too, so that the others could share their thought with him. "Our forebears had trouble with the inhabitants also. They thought our horn had magical powers, and we almost died out as a species, before we managed to leave our home planet. From what we have reamed from our legends, they are quite territorial when it involved the place where they live. But that was a long time ago. They might have changed,- Kamil added hopefully.

Suddenly Twinclian's thoughts became sadness. "In all of the time the must have passed since your ancestors left, they haven't changed. I was responding to a message that they had sent into space. But when I entered where they could track my ship, their aircraft shot it down. If it hadn't been for two special people, Jenny Hayden and Mark Shermin, I wouldn't be here now."

"I'm grateful to them for the help they gave you, my friend, Kamil said as his horn attempted to touch the blue globe of light in front of him.

But Twinclian flowed out of Kamil's reach. "Kamil, after what happened to my co-creators, I cannot take a chance that it might happen to you also.

"My friend, shouldn't that be my choice?" After a small pause, Twinclian drifted down to Kamil. As the two touched, the friendship that existed between them caused Twinclian's colour to lighten slightly.

"Kamil, I'm grateful for the small change in my colour, but we cannot remain this way throughout my entire visit."

"I know. But when I get tired, will someone take over? Kamil asked the others nearby.

The other unicorns, Zvezda, Stelo, and Tavuwa, agreed with Kamil, decided to take turns of two hours each. As they let their mind shields down, they let Twinclian know of their decision.

After each one had taken a turn, Twinclian persuaded them to give up. "Thank you, my friends, but it's not doing much good as my colour has not become any lighter."

"Twinclian,, since the humans have troubled both of our races, have you thought that they might be the cause of your problem?" Zvezda inquired.

"Yes, Twinclian, did you do anything unusual on that planet?" Stelo asked, dropping his mind barrier so the others could share what he was thinking.

"Yes, I had to copy their form but I don't think that is the source of my problem," Twinclian responded with what amounted to a mental shrug, "because I have done the same thing on several different planets, and nothing happened then."

Can you recall anything that you might have done differently this time?" Tavuwa wanted to know.

"Well...." Twinclian's mind shield went up because he did not want to share something so personal even with his friends.

How can we help you if we don't have all the facts?- the unicorns thought in unison.

During the second time of darkness on their planet, Jenny Hayden and I..." Twinclian stopped, and his shield went up again. He was still unable to share the memory of what they did.

The Martians guessed what had happened between Twinclian and the Earth woman, but, not wanting to embarrass their friend, they waited until he was ready to confirm what they already knew.

After several seconds Twinclian continued, "She was so lonely that I left her with a male co-creation."

"Twinclian why would you think that we would not understand the urge to procreate, and, believe me, humans are very good when it come to the reproduction process. Will you thrust me to know? As a historian, and keeper of our records," Kamil said in response to the sceptical impulse of thought that he had received from Twinclian. "How often did the two of you join during the time of darkness? Kamil added, almost as an afterthought.

"Only one time," Twinclian answered, wondered what the number of times he and Jenny were "together" had to do with his bizarre problem.

Have you been "friends." with any other beings?" Kamil wanted to know.

"No."

"I didn't think so." Kamil Twinclian dwell on that for a few minutes.

Do you really think that that is the cause of my colour getting darker?" their guest questioned Kamil hopefully.

o o O o o

Mark Shermin, having rented a small airplane, had just landed at the airport. He ran to the nearest phone and called the number Jeanne had given him, to make sure that Jeanne would by at the diner when he got there.

But because his description of himself was so vague, Jeanne started eyeing every man who remotely fit the description she had been given and who was smoking a cigar, giving several men the wrong idea. After several seconds of watching her with amusement, Shermin walked over to introduce himself. "Now how can we help Mrs. Hayden?

But while they were making plans to help Jenny get away, Fox managed to Convince Dr. Attaya that Jenny was indeed mentally ill. When Mark and Jeanne got to the hospital and started asking where Jennifer Hayden was, Dr. Attaya informed them that Fox had removed Mrs. Hayden, over his protests, about an hour before. He had no idea where they had gone.

After a night of almost no sleep. Mark and Joanne still had not thought of a realistic plan to find Jenny, let along how to help her. Shermin knew that they would need some energy to keep up their search and suggested that they go and get something to eat. Jeanne said that the best food in town was at the place where they had met the day before.

When Sue the waitress walked up with her pen and pad, Jeanne said she Just wanted what she usually ordered.

The man with her, not knowing what that was, said, "I'll have whatever she is having," when Sue glanced his way. "Jeanne, I've have to get back to Washington, D.C., and I will start calling anyone I know who might have any idea on were ho might have had her taken to.'

But after a couple of weeks, all Shermin could find out was that Fox was away on special assignment. No one could or would tell him where Fox had gone, or when he would be back.

o o O o o

In the meantime, Fox had gathered a lid of people who he concluded might be the best ones to help him with his problem and would not create too many waves when they found out what their task was to be! After studying several files very carefully, he finally decided on one. On the front of it was the name Sandra Mason, a person whose credentials more than qualified for what Fox was looking for.

Mason, called to her boss's office, didn't know what awaited her inside. She looked around the room, looked at General Kimberly Jividen, then back at the strangely nervous man who was closely watching her.

"Doctor Mason, this man is George Fox, from the Federal Security Agency. Ha us asking that you help him on a certain job." Her boss, normally so informal and full of jokes, was strangely subdued as though performing a reluctant duty. Sandra couldn't help thinking that she'd heard the name George Fox before, somewhere.

"What exactly is it, this job that I'm needed for?"

The man called Fox spoke. "First, I want your word that you will not repeat anything which I am going to tell you.

"Okay, I promise," the doctor said, mystified.

Do you recall about six months ago, hearing anything about a visitor from outer space?

"Yes. Mark nearly lost his job because he helped it escape, he told me." Suddenly Dr. Mason realised why the name George Fox sounded familiar.

The mention of Mark Shermin caused an abrupt change in Fox's demeanour. "If I'd had my way, he sure wouldn't have a job now,- Fox said curtly, his lips tightening at what he considered to be Shermin's betrayal of the human race. "But this concerns the woman who was involved in the incident. I need you to serve as her doctor for the next few months."

"Well, my patient load isn't too heavy right now. I could take her on."

"I don't mean that you will be adding her to your patient load." Fox's manner suggested that Dr. Mason wasn't going to be given a choice in the matter. "I mean that you will be leaving here, and going to a secret location where you will care for this woman full-time, giving her the best care possible."

Care for this woman? Why is she so special?"

"It is not necessary for you to know that. Just give this woman the best care possible. Monitor her condition 24 hours a day."

Is she an invalid? Was she injured in some way by her contact with the alien?"

Fox hesitated for a moment, then said, "All right, you do have top level security clearance. As her doctor, you need to know. She is pregnant. She was impregnated by the alien. Assuming that the pregnancy follows a normal human time table, she should deliver in two or three months. I'm going to need someone with a medical background to help us to study It's offspring after it's loom."

"The... the offspring? Study the offspring?" A look of horror was beginning to dawn on Sandra Mason's face. She stared at Fox in disbelief. "Are you telling me that you want me to participate in experimental tests on a helpless baby?

"Probably it will have the outward appearance of a human baby, but it will not be one of those babies you women are usually so sentimental about. It is a hybrid freak, an alien seed, planted hero for God knows what purpose. We could, of course, only keep it confined for the duration of its lifetime, but we feel that by studying it we may learn more about the thing who created it. There may be more such alien seed walking about in human guise, and we have to know how to combat this threat. The future of the human species may depend upon it." Fox met Dr. Mason's eyes unflinchingly as the words came from him.

"What if I refuse to assist you in this matter?"

Fox noted that Dr. Mason's face wore an expression he had seen on everyone he had ever talked to. "Dr. Mason, you know very well that I have the authority to insist on your co-operation, if necessary." He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a sealed envelope, and firmly placed the envelope into Sandra Mason's unresisting hand. "I expect you to report within a week."

Sandra looked at the envelope and recognised the Presidential seal. Unable to argue, she bowed her head in defeat. Two days later, she was introduced to the woman who would be under her care for the next three months.

But when Mark Shermin reamed that Sandra Mason had requested an indefinite leave of absence without giving a valid reason he tried to learn why from his boss. "I cannot tell you anything, and I suggest you that you let the subject drop before you lose your job for good because I will not be able to pull any strings this time.

"But, sir, is Fox behind her leaving? Can you tell me that much? He has abducted a friend of mine, and her baby is due in about three months. Jacob Skarin's silence told Mark what he wanted to know. "Thank you for that much, sir."

"Mark, be careful. I don't think you fully understand just how dangerous Fox can be."

I didn't when I first met him. But after what he did to Jennifer Hayden when he found out about the baby, I know that he's capable of anything! Mark said, in order to reassure his boss that he knew just what kind of trouble Fox could cause him. But Mark also knew that he wouldn't be able to look Jeanne in the face again if he didn't try to help Jenny.

After a seat on the next flight to Blue Jay, Mark called Jeanne and told her what he had learned regarding Jenny's disappearance.

What are we going to do now?" the person on the other end of the line asked in a voice filled with despair.

"I have no idea. Please meet me at the airport at two o'clock. I should be there by then." Two hours later he was at the terminal.

"Don't worry, we will think of something." Mark said, as his arm enfolded Jeanne's shoulder to give her moral support. "But right now I'm starved, so how about some more hashbrowns and gravy? Pat's Place has the best. I'm hooked on them."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. I stopped by there last Wednesday, and a man smoking a cigar tried to pick me up," Jeanne said with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

"He better not try anything while I'm there," Mark replied, his hand reaching up to touch her brown hair.

A few minutes later, after both of them slid into a empty booth at the diner, Jeanne shifted her gaze to a photo of a purple iris, but that only reminded her of her friend. She was grateful when Sue walked by with a pot of coffee. "Sue, can I have some, please?"

"Sure, here you go. Are you two ready to order yet?"

"Yes, I'll have the hashbrowns and gravy," Mark let her know.

"Will you have that also as usual, Jeanne?" Sue asked with her pen poised.

"Well," Jeanne hesitated. "No, just a salad this time. I'm trying to lose some weight."

"Wait,' her escort spoke before Sue could write anything down. "What do you usually have?"

"I usually order the hashbrowns and gravy, or don't you remember that's we had the first time we met?"

Order it if that's what you want. I like you the way you are now," Mark said with a smile.

"Okay, you two lovebirds. Jeanne, have you made up your mind on what you really want to order?" Sue asked, beating her pen against the pad in her hand. What Sue just said made Mark and Jeanne look at each other, as it dawned on them that what Sue had just called them was true.

"Yes, I'll hays my usual."

As they left, Jeanne put a tip by her plate. "Because you remembered the water." Sue, looking up from what she was writing, just grinned.

o o O o o

During the month that Jenny had been taken into "protective custody," Mark at first had started calling Jeanne so that he could keep her up to date in case he was making any headway in finding their missing friend. But after two or three calls in which he had nothing to tell Jeanne, Mark realised that the reason he called so often was that ha liked the sound of her voice.

o o O o o

It was night on the far side of Mars, and Twinclian's four unicorn friends were asleep. Tavuwa's subconscious thoughts were seeping into her dreams. She tossed her head and woke up before her thoughts awakened the other unicorns. But Twinclian, unable to sleep, caught the thought that she was unaware of broadcasting.

"Tavuwa, I know what you're thinking. Would you really be interested in finding out what it would feel like to be my friend?" That was how Tavuwa's subconscious thoughts had manifested themselves to the one from another world. "I can create a force field that will enclose just the two of us, and allow you to experience it without the others knowing what is happening, if you like."

Intrigued, Tavuwa agreed.

The blue tunnel started swirling around them, light blue in some places and darker blue. in others. spirit, along with the essence that was known as Twinclian, started to play out the unicorn's fantasy. Tavuwa's line of vision began shifting from reality to her innermost desires.

Twinclian's shape changed, and he took on the appearance of a blue unicorn. A pale blue, almost white, horn appeared on his forehead.

"Oh, Twinclian," Tavuwa sighed as the points of their horns touched. The tip of Tavuwa's horn became a vivid lavender, the colour travelling down her horn as if it were alive. As the shimmering colour faded into nothingness, her horn started to expand and crack like an egg. Tavuwa lay as close to the ground as she could get. When all the pieces had fallen from Tavuwa's forehead, there was a small purple unicorn filly lying in front of her. The proud new mother began to lick the birth sack from her new-born filly before the baby suffocated. Twinclian, watching, became aware of feeling something that he never felt before.

The blue tunnel in front of Tavuwa's sire, dam, and birth brother Kamil was causing concern because their minds could not penetrate it. Suddenly and without warning the tunnel abruptly dissolved, taking with it all traces of Tavuwa's fantasy!

o o O o o

Back on Earth, Jenny had been left alone with Jamie Harris. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but Jamie warned her against speaking by putting his finger to his lips. He motioned her to a coffee table and turning it over, showed her the bug. Jenny nodded that she understood.

"If you hope to get me to confirm fox's insane idea that my baby is not completely human, you can forget it," Jenny's scornful voice came out on the tape recorder set up in the next room.

With an admiring glint in his eyes, Jamie responded, "Now, Mrs. Hayden, I don't know anything about that. All I know is what I've been told." Jamie enjoyed playing even dumber than fox thought he was. He pulled a notepad from his jacket, and wrote down, "Is there anyone I could get in touch with who might help you?"

Continuing to talk to Harris so that Fox would not become suspicious, Jenny wrote, Yes, Jeanne Howell in Blue Jay, West Virginia. She knows how to reach Mark Shermin, and he will help me.

When Harris saw Shermin's name, his lips puckered and he silently whistled, recognising the name from her files. He scribbled, I'll do my best as soon as I can manage to get away from the others long enough. But Fox was keeping such a tight rein on everyone, the agent was unable to slip away long enough to send a letter without being missed.

o o O o o

"Twinclian, just what were you and my twin sister doing in there?" Kamil demanded, upset that for the one of few times in his life he didn't know what Tavuwa was feeling. But when Twinclian began to explain, Kamil became infuriated at what he regarded as a betrayal of their friendship.

"Kamil, please, Twinclian only did what I wanted him to do," Tavuwa stated in a effort to defuse the tension she sensed springing up between Twinclian and her family.

"Yes, why did you abuse our hospitality by seducing our daughter, even if was only in her mind?" Stelo and Zvezda worried that next time it might be physical, rather than mental.

Ha would not do that," Tavuwa said, her ears lying close to her neck and the whites of her eyes showing. "Believe me, this is not the first time that I have tried to be more than just a friend to him. But he gave no indication that he understood what I was trying to convey to him. I don't have any idea why he responded this time."

"I am sorry, but what I feel for Jenny Hayden is different than what my feelings have always been for Tavuwa."

"And just what are those feedings?" Kamil demanded, still angry at him.

Pace 13

"The closest way that I can describe them would be what a brother would feel for a sister."

Tavuwa finally understood why Twinclian had resisted her advances before, and could not stop the tears from running muzzle. But, too hurt to face the rest of them, she galloped away with her mind shield up!

Her sibling started after her, then stopped when his mother's mind message made him trot back to them. "Kamil, let her alone for awhile. She needs to work this out by herself," their mother gently insisted. "Tavuwa is old enough to learn how to control her emotions."

"Is there anything that I can do to made amends for what I put you all through?" Twinclian was troubled that he had caused so much upsetting feelings to those around him.

"Well," Kamil did not want to lose a priceless opportunity to learn more about humans' behaviour as it existed today instead of several thousands of years ago. He slowly let his professional thins for knowledge overcome his anger, and any lasting resentment he felt towards Twinclian faded away entirely.

Just as Twinclian felt that it could not get any worse, one of his spheres started to growl Belisarius had chosen that day to check up on his chief map maker. "I had hoped there might have been some change for the better, but I see that you only have darkened instead of becoming fighter."

"Sir," Kamil spoke before Twinclian could respond, "we believe that the reason for Twinclian's problem is that he left a human woman with a little one while he was there." He pointed with his horn to the Earth glowing brightly in the pre dawn Martian sky.

"Twinclian, how could you fraternise with another species to that extent?" Belisarius radiated his disapproval. "And why did you not tell me when you came back?"

"I didn't think it was important, and I failed to make the connection until Kamil pointed it out to me."

Sandra Mason was trying to think of a way to help the woman whose care was entrusted to her. She was just beginning to realise just how unstable Fox actually was when it came to anything he imagined to be a threat to the human race. After making sure that Jenny was all right, she went to find Jamie Harris, somehow feeling that he would be her best bet to help Jenny Hayden escape from George Fox.

"Mr. Harris.."

"Call me Jamie, please?" the agent asked her.

"Only if you call me Sandra. After all, we will be here at least until after Jenny Hayden's baby is born, and all of this formality is getting a little tiring, don't you think?"

"I would like to thank you for leaving Jenny and me alone earlier. It gave me a chance to reassure her that I still am a friend she can trust, and she knows that I will not let Fox really hurt her, or the kid either." His body stiffened in anger when he saw the doubt on Sandra's face. As Sandra fumed away with a slight shrug of her shoulders, Jamie spun her around. "I am in love with her. But I think that you already knew that, didn't you?" he demanded.

"Yes, I thought that you felt some thing for Jenny, but does she feel the same about you? And just how will you stop Fox from doing what he wants do to Jenny's child after his birth?"

Before Jamie could reply, Fox appeared, having only heard the last few words of their conversation. "Doctor Mason," Fox asked, "When are you going stop calling it a child? And are you going to be able to separate your personal feelings from your duty as a human being, and respond to what could be the most serious threat our species has ever faced?" Fox had voiced his biggest fear, hoping that they would begin to take him more seriously. But if the looks he was getting from Dr. Mason and Agent Hams were any indication, he thought, it might be a losing battle.

The next day while Sandra Mason was taking her patient's blood pressure, she could see just how much strain Jenny was feeling.

"Mrs. Hayden, the tension that you are under is not helping the baby, I can tell."

"Why would you care if my baby is okay?" Jenny said bitterly. "If you really did, why would you be working with Fox?

"Well, at first I was intrigued by the idea of it, of seeing if the child you are carrying is actually part alien. But that feeling only lasted a minute or two, until I learned the reason Fox chose me to come here."

"Why did he pick you?" Jenny asked, needing someone to talk to, even if it was a person from the Government.

Because he felt that I was the most qualified."

To do what?" Jenny asked. "It concerns my baby, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Sandra Mason replied. "Please don't look at me that way," she added, as Jenny slowly looked her up and down with an expression that suggested she had just seen something that belonged under a rock. "Yes, I was to find out for sure if it really is part alien."

Don't call my baby an it," Jenny wearily repeated what she had screamed at Fox two weeks before.

"Well, until it's born, I don't know if it will be a boy or a girl. So what do you want me to call your child until it's born?"

"It will be a boy. His father told me.'

Fox, who had been in the adjoining room listening, burst in. "And just how would the father know what sex it was? Unless the father is not human, as I suspected all along!" fox began to grill Jenny again in hopes of making her slip up and admit the truth.

Tired of pretending to everyone that her unborn child was completely human, Jenny started to break down. But not wanting to be there anyway, Sandra Mason Firmly stood between him and Jenny, saying, "Mr. Fox, unless you want her to miscarry, I suggest that you leave Mrs. Hayden alone until after her baby is loom."

But Harris was also in the next room, and had to listen to his superior grill the one person he cared for the most in the world as if she were a common criminal! He managed to wait until he heard Fox leave the room, and fumed off the tape recorder so nobody working for the F S A would know that he had left his post to talk to Jenny, hoping, as he had listened from the other room, that Sandra would not reveal what she was about to hear, but not really caring if she dial "Jenny, are you okay?" Sandra, seeing the look that passed between Jenny, and Jamie discreetly left the room.

"Jamie, you should not be here. What if Fox finds out?"

"I don't care as long as you're all right."

"But if he finds out that you helped me before..." Jenny began, not wanting him to get into trouble on her account.

This isn't the only job I could find," Jamie managed to say before Jenny could stop him.

"Please, I need a friend nearby, so I'll be able to cope without going as crazy as Fox is."

"I'll stay as long as you need me," Harris said, not stating what he was feeling, so that at least they could remain friends. Jenny started to relax a little, knowing that there was one person there she could rely on.

o o O o o

Belisarius, in a small spacecraft, chose that day to see if there was any change in his chief map maker. "I had hoped that you would be lighter, but instead I find you're even worse." But while they were in mental

contact, Twinclian's colour lightened a few shades. All of them mistakenly hoped it meant Twinclian was resuming to normal.

"Sir, because we won't know if he will ever return to his normal colour, he can stay until he does."

The reddish-brown being of light, communicating with Kamil nearby, recognised him from Twinclian's mind images of him. "Kamil, I appreciate the help you have tried to give Twinclian."

No thanks are necessary, sir. My family and I were happy to be of assistance when Twinclian needed some help."

Zvezda and Stelo wondered why Twinclian and Kamil had been gone for so long. Seeing the presence of an unfamiliar ball of reddish light, they let down their mind shields and found that Belisarius had returned for his junior officer. "Captain Belisarius, we want Twinclian to stay. There is something that our daughter and he have to straighten out." Then, too embarrassed to let Belisarius know the specifics, they put their mind shields back up again.

"What has he done now?" Belisarius had to ask, because he was unable to read their thoughts. He focused his attention on Twinclian. "Twinclian, I want a full account of what happened between the time I left you here and my return."

"I will answer that," Tavuwa responded, as she joined the group. "Twinclian, as a friend, let me experience what it would be like to have his little one."

"Twinclian, I was going to allow you to stay until you got better. But it seems that I cannot trust you to be around females without causing trouble," his captain said, wearily thinking of the trouble his map maker had caused on two different planets! "You will return with me to the main ship before you create any more interstellar indiscretions!.

"Captain, it was only a illusion that Twinclian allowed me to experience," Tavuwa responded, with a shake of her head.

"Sir, I have to stay here." The blue light began to pulsate with agitation in response to the order he had received.

"Why?"

I believe it is because Jenny Hayden and my co-creation are making me want to."

"Very well, you know how to contact me, if you change your mind. But there is something on the ship that I want you to have," Belisarius said. Twinclian followed his leader back to the main ship, where he was given a sphere more powerful than the ones he had used in the past. "Our scientists perfected it while you were here. If I allow you to remain, you will need it to be able contact me." Belisarius was unsure of the wisdom of even thinking of allowing Twinclian to remain behind.

Twinclian, tom between wanting to go home and an almost uncontrollable urge to be near the planet he recently visited, convinced his captain to allow him to stay.

o o O o o

After a month Sandra discovered that she was running low on medical supplies and decided to drive to a town. She found a road map of Montana in the glove box of the car Fox had allowed her and the agent he had ordered to accompany her while she was not at the cabin, and discovered that the nearest town was Twin Bridges.

fox, unable to notice anything that did not directly concern 'IT,' had made the worst possible mistake by assigning Jamie Harris to guard Sandra. "I have to got to the bathroom," Sandra said when they passed a service station. While she was in the bathroom, Jamie spotted a mailbox and dropped in Jenny's letter to Mark Shermin c/o Jeanne Howell.

Sandra remembered that she had cousins in the tiny town of Polaris, in nearby Beaverhead County. Sandra's grandfather, Sam Melville, had been a Delaware Indian, and Audrey Menefee and her husband Selden, cousins of his, and some other members of the Delaware tribe had moved to Montana with him.

Sandra knew that they had no great fondness for the U.S. government, and, she hoped, they might be able to help somehow in Jenny's escape.

Sandra told Jamie she wanted to make a phone call "to say hi to some of my relatives." Even though she knew that he would suspect that she was really trying to help Jenny in some way, she also knew that he wouldn't care. Sandra didn't want to get him in trouble if it could be avoided. Spotting familiar golden arches, she told Jamie she was having a Big Mac attack and it wouldn't be pretty to watch when it happened. Jamie formed a protective cross with his two forefingers and backed away from her with a big grin.

While Jamie was at MacDonaid's, placing her order. Sandra called her cousin Audrey. She explained the situation, and Audrey started to think of people who might be angry enough at anything or anybody connected with the U.S. government to help a frightened woman escape their clutches. As all of the population of Polaris were relations, either by marriage or by blood, Audrey knew without asking that they would band together! The first one she called was Danny Silver. "Sure, cuz, Just let me know when you want this pow-wow to take place, and my brood and I will be there." Having received her instructions to get in touch with the rest of the family, he proceeded to do as she asked.

o o O o o

A few days later, having received Jenny's letter, Shermin made arrangements to get to where she was as soon as possible. But when Shermin asked his boss for a leave of absence in order to help a friend, Jacob Skarin, no one's fool, guessed who the friend was and tried to talk him out of going. "Mark, be sensible. Haven't you reamed your lesson yet? If you pursue this matter further, I will not be able to intervene again."

"Yes, sir, I understand completely. However, I want - no, I need - to see how this whole mess ends."

After Shermin left the building where the S.E.T.I. of fices were located, he went home to pack some things that ho knew he would need for the cold weather that he would be facing in Montana. A feeling that he was overlooking something kept nagging in the back of his mind. Mark snapped his fingers as he finally remembered what it was. He walked to his bedroom closet door, opened it, pulled an object off the shelf placed it in his suitcase, thinking how pleased Jenny would be to have it back. After trying several times to reach Jeanne by phone, Mark gave up and called a cab to take him to the airport.

Mark finally reached Jeanne Howell from a pay phone at the airport, and told her that he now knew where to find Jenny and the baby. But now it was his turn to use the same arguments that his boss had used on him in a vain attempt to try to talk some sense into someone just as stubborn as he, and he received the same response that his boss had gotten from him.

"Mark, please, she's my friend too, and I want to help."

"Are you absolutely sure that you know what is really going on, or what will happen when Fox finds us there?"

"No, but... Mark, I love you, and if anything happens to you I want to be there."

I feel the same about you, which is why I'm not going to tell you where Fox has taken Jenny.

"Okay, but please call me when you get there? Jeanne asked, pretending to give up.

"I promise, but I've just heard my night announced over the loudspeaker, and I have to hang up now."

After several hours of pacing the floor and staring at the phone waiting for it to ring, Jeanne nevertheless was startled when it finally did. She ran across the room to snatch it up, only to hear someone breathing heavily for a few seconds before she was hung up on!

The next time it rang the same thing happened. As the familiar sound filled the room yet a third time Jeanne, filled with a sense of dread, picked it up again. This time, to her relief, she heard Mark's voice.

"Jeanne, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to call you back, but the airplane had to circle the runway a couple of times before it was safe to land. I am going to try to rent a room, but it seems that there is a STAR TREK convention, and the al! the hotels I have called in the area are filled up until Sunday. I'll call back when I find a room. I love you," he added, not wanting to break their connection.

As soon as the phone line went dead, Jeanne called the operator. "I just talking to a very mixed up friend who was threatening to commit suicide by taking a bunch of pills, and the line went dead. Could you tell me where he called from?"

"Yes, Ma'am, the call came from Tin-Star, Montana, shall I call the local police, in case they can do anything?" The operator asked with a worried tone of voice.

Thank you I'd appreciate it." But after the operator phoned the Montana state police and gave them the number that Mark had called from, they found it was a local pay phone at the airport, and, figuring it was just another prank, the two cops decided to let the matter drop.

Jeanne, now knowing where to go, booked a seat for the night leaving the next day. Then she called Montine Stansell and asked her to be in charge of the agency while she was gone. She spent the rest of the night packing what she thought she might need for that time of year in Montana. Early the next morning, after finding her seat on the plane, she promptly fell asleep from nervous exhaustion!

Tinstar having a population of 50 people and only one hotel, it was not hard at all for Jeanne to find Mark Shermin.

Mark, responding to a knock at his hotel room door and seeing who stood there, tried to sound mad and asked her in a gruff tone of voice, "What in the blue blazes are you doing here? And how did you manage to discover where I was?" But his arms were opening wide in welcome.

Jeanne, after a slight pause, was unsure if she had really done the right thing in following the man she loved. But seeing a teasing smile on his face, she stepped into his arms with a sigh of relief. "I had the operator trace your call and she told me where I could find you. Now just how far is Iris..., I mean Jenny, from here?"

I'm not sure, but she shouldn't be too hard to find, in a town this small. It's only has a population of fifty, according to the town sign welcoming you to it. Now all we have to do is find out where Jenny's being held by Fox, and as small a place as this is, that should not be to hard to do. Someone has bound to have seen strangers in town."

But neither Mark nor Jeanne knew that Tinstar was an F.S.A. front. The houses were owned by the F.S.A., used as safe houses for keeping prisoners when necessary, and when they were not being used as safe houses they were made available for the use of vacationing agents and their families who liked the fad that the F.S.A. offered free accommodations for Rocky Mountain skiing trips. All the townspeople were either F.S.A. agents or members of their immediate families, all of whom knew how to pose as ordinary townsfolk whenever outsiders wandered into the town.

But this week Tinstar had found itself overrun not by window-shopping skiers but by groups of people wearing pointy-topped rubber ears and dressed in what appeared to be a uniform that consisted of a blue tunic and black pants. On the tunics they wore silver pins that looked like a upside down v. But several others dressed in much stranger looking costumes! Having lost control of the Trekkies, most gave up and decided to let Fox handle the problem, since he and his men were the only agents there who were not on vacation.

For a couple of days, Mark and Jeanne showed Jenny's photo to several different groups of costumed people, but they received only blank looks in response. Then Shermin, looking out of his hotel window, spotted a familiar face entering a store across the street, and called to Jeanne. "Jeanne, I want you to go over to the store, and when I nod my head follow the woman leaving the store."

"Why? Who is she?"

"It's Sandra Mason. We both know that she is our best lead in finding Jenny."

Sandra not knowing that she was being followed, proceeded up the street. After a few blocks, one of the people with the weird ears caught up with Sandra, and informed her that she was being followed.

Thank you, Mr....?" Sandra asked.

"My name is John Anderson," the tall man with grey thinning hair responded in a deep tone of voice. "I was a friend of your grandfather, Sam Melville. And most of the people in the group are friends."

Sandra, curious that someone was tailing her whom she didn't know, rounded a comer of the nearest building and waited there until Jeanne passed by, so that she would be able to get a better glimpse of the woman following her. But still not knowing who it was, she waited for a count of ten and followed Jeanne back to the hotel. After waiting for Jenny to leave the lobby, Sandra asked the person behind the desk who that was who just came in.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot give out that information." the man standing behind the desk said with a smile. "But if you want to leave a message I'll be sure that she gets it."

After a brief glance at the name tag he was wearing, "Thank you anyway, Mr. Bourn," Sandra replied as she turned away.

"Please, Dallas will do. the clerk said as a small woman with a cane came from the room behind the desk, to let him know that his lunch was ready. "I'm coming, Irene," he said as he placed a sign in front of him that read, "I, will be back in an hour."

Sandra waited until they could not see her, and peeked at the guest log. Running her finger down the last page, she found a familiar name, and the room number he was in. Then she went and knocked on the door marked 17. Mark, unaware that Jeanne had been traced back to him, was more than a little surprised when he heard a knock, and thinking it was the pizza they had ordered, opened the door.

"Sandra, how did you find out that we were here so fast?"

"It wasn't very hard, after I was told that I was being followed. I managed to lose her. Sandra looked over at Joanne questioningly. "Well, Mark, aren't you going to introduce us?"

"All right, Jeanne. I would like you to meet a colleague of mine, Sandra Mason. Sandra, this is Jeanne Howell, a friend of Jennifer Hayden.

"I thought as much. Jenny, needing someone to talk to, mentioned your mane several times during the chats we have had."

"Please, how is Jenny doing? May I see her?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea. Fox has her under very tight security, and he knows both of you by sight. But," Sandra went on, "I have gotten in touch with some relatives who live nearby. We have been hoping that they can help us get her away from Fox before the baby's loom."

Mark and Jeanne glanced at her and asked in unison, "Who is we?"

Sandra replied, "There 's a F.S.A. agent who is helping me plan Jenny's escape. But I don't want to reveal who ho is just yet."

Mark and Jeanne, seeing the stubborn look on her face, let the subject drop for the time being. But Mark asked, "Why is he helping Jenny, anyway?

"Because he is in love with her." At the sheer disbelief on their faces, she added, "I know, I had the same response myself until Jenny told me that he had helped her slip away from Fox once before." Hearing that, the two of them began to relax and to believe that it just might be possible to free Jenny before her baby was born.

Sandra told Jamie Harris that Jeanne and Mark were in town, and asked him if it was all right to tell them his name. Ha nodded his permission.

A week later Jamie met Jeanne and Mark in Mark's room. "I remember you, Jeanne said after a slight pause. "You were one of the agents guarding Jenny's door at the hospital. Have you figured out how we're going to spirit Jenny away from Fox yet?"

"Yes be ready to leave when you receive a call. We'll need to move fast once the baby is here. Sandra's family reeled a cabin nearby, so we'll have a place to hide Jenny."

o o O o o

On December 11, at almost eleven o'clock in the morning, Jenny began to experience mild shooting pains in the upper part of her back. By 2 00 p m. the pains were so intense she couldn't hide them any longer. A spasm caused her to gasp out loud in pain, as the force of it made Jenny stand rigid.

"All right, young lady, how long have you been experiencing pain, and how far apart are they?" The doctor was annoyed at herself because she had failed to notice the grimaces on Jenny's face and the way she kept rubbing the small of her back.

"They started four hours ago, and they are about an hour apart." Jenny managed to say. Remembering Jeanne's accounts of what she did to minimise the pain of contractions during her own delivery, Jenny forced herself to relax and to breathe slowly while focusing on a object.

"The best thing to do at this point would to take a long walk outside, but the snow is too high, so we will just have to make do with what space is available in here." Sandra started walking Jenny in preparation for the final stage of labour. After they had walked around the living room more times than either woman could count, Jeanne helped Jenny over to the couch so that skis could sit down, and went to fix up the room whore Jenny was to deliver the baby. While she was alone, Sandra made a call to her cousin Audrey.

o o O o o

When Fox reamed that Jenny is in the first stage of labour, he posted two men outside the room where Jenny was.

Dr. Mason, coming back into the room, spied them there and went to find Fox. "Fox, do you really think is it necessary to post men outside her door? In her condition, do you think she's going anywhere?

It is Mister Fox to you," he replied, irritated by her sarcastic tong, "and yes, I do."

Do what?"

"Think it is necessary for them to be there!" And Fox flung open the door and stomped into the room.

Jenny was startled when she saw Fox in front of her. "Verdammter Scheisskopf!" she hissed.

What did you say?" Fox demanded.

"Just something my uncle from Germany used to say when he wanted to compliment people," Jenny replied, with a sweet smile.

"Okay. All the men in this room, out! Now!" Sandra ordered

You're not giving the orders hero. I'm staying right here," said Fox.

"Please, let me stay too," pleaded Jamie.

"If you are not leaving, at least stay out of my way," Sandra said, and added, "Please."

Jamie moved to Jenny's side and took her hand. Jenny squeezed his hand so tightly that it began to throb.

Fox stood out of the way in a comer of the room. "I'm making sure that nothing happens to IT."

"Jenny, as your doctor, I want you to begin to breaths very slowly with short breaths, in and out.' Jenny began to do as she had been instructed. Sandra could see the top of the baby's head. "Bear down now Jenny, he's coming." Sandra was careful to call the baby "he," because she could tell that Fox's use of the word "it" was adding to Jenny's stress.

Jenny, her legs spread apart in makeshift stirrups, felt her baby start to slide from her body. A blue light appeared from a spot between her legs and slowly enveloped the bed, as the baby's head emerged from the warm and safe place that he was in for the last nine months. As Sandra caught the small body, the baby, with a cry of anger, announced his arrival! The professional in Sandra took over, and glancing at her watch, she noted it was 12:05 am, December 12.

When the F.S.A. agents saw the blue light spreading outwards from a spot on the bed and enveloping the rest of it, they made a mindless race for the only exit! Fox, who had though that he was prepared for what

was to happen, was the first one out the door, and within seconds the rest of his men, except for Jamie, had joined him outside in the snow. The 40 below zero temperature quickly brought them all back to their senses.

But Sandra Mason's family had been waiting for them outside. Amidst warwhoops pure glee and mischief, they threw a blanket over the befuddled agents and wrapped a rope several times around the outside of it. Selden Menefee tied the rope in several secure knots.

Jamie Harris, who had stayed with the two women, poked his head outside, and, seeing that the other agents were now securely bound, he went back inside, gently picked up Jenny and, cradling her in his arms like a baby, carried her outside. Sandra followed with the new-born child.

As they were about to get into the car, Jeanne and Mark drove up. "We got here as fast as we could after you called us, Sandra," Mark gasped excitedly.

Several of the Star Trek group wandered over. "Is your convention still going on?" Mark asked, trying to distract their attention from what was happening.

The real Trekkies left days ago. But this sure was a good disguise for Melvilles and Menefees to plan the big escape. Hey, man, we're part of the escapade tool. Ray Burton exclaimed.

Mark and the rest of the men helped Sandra, and Jenny into John Anderson's jeep. Sandra placed the baby into Jenny's arms. "Too bad we didn't get to battle those government agents," Selden Menefee pouted. They were too easy to tie up."

Mark finally had the chance to return something to Jenny that ho had found on a table in the cafe near the meteor crater. A red baseball cap. He opened the jeep door and placed it on her lap. Jenny's eyes filled with tears as she clutched the cap.

Mark could not resist a impulse. Taking hold of Jeanne's left hand with his right one, and reaching into his pocket with his left hand, he knelt in front of her with one knee in the snow and asked, "Jeanne, will you marry me?"

John Anderson, earmuffs not quite covering the points of his ears, muttered, "Fascinating."

Jeanne was caught off guard, but she nodded her head, and the word "yes. escaped her in a puff of steam.

Mark opened the ring box he had pulled out of his pocket. "I'll wait until we are someplace warm before I take your mitten off and put this on your finger.'

Jamie Harris wrote "I quit in the snow (with a stick, what did you think I meant?) before joining the group in the jeep.

Fox heard the jeep start up. Ho knew what was happening and made a outraged roar beneath the blanket, and trying to wiggle his way out of the rope that held him and his men captive.

As John, Audrey, and Seldon loft in their own car, Audrey said, "I feel guilty about leaving those agents out shore. Let's make an anonymous call to the sheriff when we get to the hotel, so they don't freeze to death."

"The spies who'll come in from the cold", Selden said.

**TAKE THIS JOB & SHOVE IT GEORGE**

Twinclian was feeling acute discomfort, and from his unicorn friends' reaction to him, he could sense that his colour change must have been happening more rapidly than ever before. Kamil and the rest of his family began backing up with alarm as Twinclian's colour at first slowly began to darken, and as the birth process proceeded to the final stage became almost black!

He projected himself over to a nearby ice mirror, and, starting to panic at seeing himself getting so dark so fast, Twinclian decided to use his sphere to contact his captain.

Since Belisarius was several planets away it took him sometime to reach the spot where the signal was coming from. But by that time Twinclian's colour was almost back to normal.

"Twinclian, are you ready to come home yet? I don't see any reason why you shouldn't, do you?"

"No, captain, I think if I am ever to maintain the colour that I have now without it changing again I'd better get as far away from here as possible as soon as I can."

But the distance that separated father and son had nothing to do with what caused his problem. Four years later Twinclian's colour changed briefly for six months. But since he was back on Mars for a visit with Kamil and the rest of his friends, and the new little ones to the unicorn family, Twinclian believed that it was his closeness to Earth that caused the change come over him again!

Tavuwa and Rasi, the one who chose to help her get over the feelings she had for Twinclian, did so to such a extent that they had twin unicorns, Xing and Hoshi. Tavuwa and Rasi were hermaphrodite beings, each had one of the twins when they put their horns as close to the ground as they could - just as in the fantasy Tavuwa had shared with Twinclian years before.

But after that, Twinclian had no more colour change problems for a long time. The ship, and Twinclian, were far from Earth, and both Twinclian and Belisarius thought that that was the reason for Twinclian's colour stability ... until ten years later, when, although they were on the other side of the galaxy, the map maker's problem occurred once more!

"Sir... um ... I hate to bother you, but..."

"Go. And don't come back until the problem is settled."

THE END


End file.
